Julien

The war came at night. It was four in the morning on Christmas day when they came. The rebels broke into our house and they tortured me, they started stabbing me, and my head was beaten so severely.

I knew I was about to die.

The blood was pouring. With the butt of a gun they hit my eye, and to this day that eye is blind. They raped my wife in my presence, together with my eldest daughter. I remember my children screaming “Daddy is dying” and after that, I didn’t know where my family were.

They were gone, I thought that they had been killed.

When my health became stable, I decided to run to Uganda. That’s where I found my children. My wife had been detained at the Congo border, my sons had been taken as child soldiers but managed to escape, but they were very sick. One of them had even been shot. My anger and my worries grew. How was I going to take care of my children?

I couldn’t live my life well because the relationship between my family were bad. So many times, I would lose my temper with them because of my stress and trauma. I felt so disturbed that I would walk through the streets talking to myself. Many people hated me, they would say I was a bad person. I would ask myself “What did I do to deserve this?”

For so long I felt alone, but at the moment I felt most rejected, that’s when Tutapona came to visit me. They continued to visit me and to help me, and now I am a different person. I’m very kind, I‘m very glad.

We are getting our lives back and I’m hopeful that with time, with Tutapona’s presence in our lives, things will continue to get better.

I feel right when I am with Tutapona, I feel so protected and safe.When I was all alone, that’s when Tutapona came and loved me.